Spending bills give relief to GOP donors

WASHINGTON {AP} Less money for a federal lawsuit against the tobacco industry. No pressure for fuel-efficient cars. Delayed mining regulations. Free tests for egg producers.

Big Republican donors are getting all sorts of help in their battles against Clinton administration regulations, thanks to special measures the GOP-controlled Congress has buried in agency spending bills.

The White House is hoping to make the special measures, called riders, election-year issues.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is trying to persuade his Republican troops to limit the provisions and avoid an impasse on spending bills such as the ones that shut down the government in 1995 and 1996.

"We're trying to take riders off the bills," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said. "We want to get these bills done as quickly as possible."

Still, the special-interest provisions are piling up in the legislation to fund federal agencies in 2001.

"The president simply cannot and will not sign bills so burdened by riders that they do serious harm to the environment and otherwise damage the interests of the American people," said Jack Lew, President Clinton's budget director.

On Thursday night, the House refused to drop one of them a provision to quash new workplace regulations for preventing repetitive stress injuries. Companies reviled the regulations, fearing new costs. Unions, the biggest financial backers of Democrats, backed the rules.

Presidential aides have identified at least 40 such provisions in spending bills and are drawing parallels to 1995. "They're back to their old tricks," White House chief of staff John Podesta said.

Republicans counter that their measures are needed to fix a government too eager to impose regulations without considering the financial impact.

Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., has inserted a provision in an agriculture spending bill that would block the Food and Drug Administration's plan to require egg producers to pay the cost of federal tests for salmonella.

Critics note many of the measures help large GOP donors in an election year when both the White House and control of Congress are up for grabs.

For instance, egg and poultry farms have given $174,000 to federal candidates this election cycle, two-thirds of it to Republicans.

"These appropriations bills have become laden down with language to protect the wealthiest and most influential special interests in the country," said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., a member of the House Appropriations Committee.